Ironman Training Week 22 – Recovery Week The Right Way

After failing at recovering the last time I attempted a recovery week (not including 70.3 recovery – I did that right), I told myself that this time it would be different. After this week I go into the three highest volume weeks of my life, and I want to go to bed Sunday night refreshed and excited to take them on. So, my plan for the week was to remove two workouts all together and to shorten most of the workouts. Most importantly, I reduced the length of both my long ride and my long run and even opted for a flat long ride course instead of the typical hill-fest.

Monday – Masters Swim doesn’t get skipped, even in recovery week. It is honestly more brutal for me to swim 2000 yards on my own than to bust out 3,500 yards of swimming with the group at the YMCA. This workout was supposed to involve a lot of fast sets, but for me they were on the moderate end. I keep wondering if I should move up to the faster lane (1:35 base lane) but I get intimidated and don’t do it. Grr.

Tuesday – Asia and I met up at the reasonable hour of 6 a.m. for a 5 mile run. My body was definitely protesting this run after the intense weekend I had just had and the going was slow. I was certainly happy to be finished with the run. Afterward I did 15 minutes of ab work with P90X Ab Ripper.

At lunch, I got my monthly massage. It felt amazing! I literally fell asleep on the table at one point. I originally requested a sports masseuse and although I do think she does some sports massage technique, I’m not convinced that it is your typical sports massage. Either way, I leave feeling relaxed and refreshed so that is fine with me.

That evening I came home and did 60 minutes of easy spinning on the trainer. Last week I broke our remote control by sweating all over it during one of our long trainer sessions, so I had to sit through commercials while I rode.

Wednesday – Back to Masters Swim for 3,600 yards of swimming. I ALMOST got into the 1:35 lane but got scared away by the board which had a lot of “fast” written next to the intervals. Usually the Wednesday coach is all about endurance and a lot of base + 5 so I was thinking this would be a good day to move up. Instead, I scared myself off and got into my normal lane. For the first half I was debating in my head whether I should move over to the faster lane but since the intervals were shorter, the lane next to me was ahead and it would have been weird to move over. Instead, I stuck it out and decided to leave half a lane length of space in front of me before leaving the wall. I did all of the 5 100s at or under 1:35 which I was happy about. Near the end we were doing some fast 150s and 200s and I was glad to be in my 1:45 base lane. In the end though, I think I could have switched to the faster lane and held on. It would have been a good week to do it since it is recovery week and I was less tired than usual due to the lower volume.

That evening I was back on the trainer for 60 minutes of spinning. Mike didn’t join me again because he took off work that day to do a long ride with his coworkers. He rode 123 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing! You can read his blog about it here.

Thursday – I slept in this morning and got 9.5 hours of sleep! It was glorious. I love sleep! That evening I met up with Asia for a 6.5 mile run, which felt pretty mediocre. My legs felt heavy and our pace was slow. Afterward I did about 30 minutes of upper body and core strength. I did a mix of moves I’ve learned from various places, including P90X and Insanity. I did pull-ups (yes I can still do them!), push-ups, plank, side plank, plank punches, and various ab exercises. Afterward I stretched and foam rolled, focusing a lot on my high flexors because the sports masseuse told me that they were particularly tight after our session on Tuesday. I’ve never actually had my hip flexors hurt while I foam rolled them but they did this time!

Friday – Complete day of rest. This evening we went to a friend’s house for a BBQ and I had a couple of glasses of sangria and a beer and was feeling quite tipsy! It felt really good to enjoy good food and drinks with friends and not worry so much about Ironman. We didn’t even get home til nearly 11 p.m. which for us lately is unheard of. However, since we “only” had a 65 mile ride the next day, we knew we didn’t have to wake up til 7 a.m. and weren’t too worried about our late bedtime.

Saturday – We set off just after 8 a.m. for a 65 mile ride down the coast and through Camp Pendleton. WE chose this route for a couple of reasons – 1) Asia just got a new bike and she wanted to practice on flat route first and 2) it was recovery week. I immediately regretted our decision to ride this route as it was very crowded and full of large pelotons of cyclists. This debacle warrants an entire separate blog post, but I was quite frustrated on several occasions due to egotistical men that did not like to be passed by women as well as inexperienced/slow riders (including beach cruisers and mountain bikes) hogging the road and/or running lights and stop signs. I did let my ego get to me a few times and probably pushed the pace a little too hard going through Pendleton in order to outride annoying pelotons or aforementioned men, HOWEVER, I was pleased that my average pace for the first 50 miles (including slowing for stop signs and lights, etc) was nearly faster than my Half Ironman race pace! It was by far my fastest average pace on a training ride EVER. I am seeing progress!!! After our ride we did a 3 mile run at a quick 8:40 min/mile pace.

Pre-Ride!

Sunday –Sunday morning we drove down to Mission Bay and did our scheduled 1 hour 30 minute run on the boardwalk and around the bay. We ended up running just over 9.5 miles. Afterward, we swam in the bay. There was supposed to be 5 of us swimming – Team WODS plus Asia’s friend Audrey that she met in her master’s swim. First, Jeremy didn’t come because he wasn’t feeling well. Then Audrey canceled. Then Mike forgot his goggles and swim cap. So it was just Asia and I. We had planned to swim for 60 minutes, but after all the drop-outs we were tempted to skip the swim compeltely.Instead, we said we’d do 5 laps around the buoys, which is just over 1 mile. Including the swim out to the buoys and back, I would guess we swam about2,000 yards. Although getting in the water was tough, I was glad we did it. There were about 5 buoys that spanned the distance of about .1 miles and it was great practice to swim to the right of them, just like I will be doing at CdA. I discovered that alternating my breathing really just slows me down and doesn’t allow me to sight the buoys, so its really just better to sight forward instead. I practiced doing this and tried to swim in a straight line for the majority of the time. Oddly enough, I was veering right at first and then I was able to get myself to swim fairly straight but then toward the end I veered left a few times far enough to swim to the other side of the buoys without realizing it. I definitely need more practice in the open water, specifically in this bay that has the buoys so I can practice swimming straight. We decided that we will do one of our 2.4 mile open water practice swims at the same spot.

Weekly Totals:

Yards Swam: 9,100

Hours Biked (door to door): 7

Miles Run: 23.5

Minutes of Core/Strength: 45

Total Time: 14.75 hours

Recovery the Right Way!

I really felt like a normal human this week. Sleeping in two mornings, have one weekday evening completely free and seeing friends all three nights of the weekend made me *almost* feel like I wasn’t training for an Ironman anymore (and I wore a dress TWICE!). Like I’ve said before, it’s bizarre how you get used to working out so much, so somehow “only” 14.75 hours this week felt light. Not to mention, intensity was kept at a minimum for most of the workouts (except for my over zealous miles during the long weekend ride). Although drinking sangria Friday at a BBQ, beer on Saturday at Cinco de Mayo and happy hour Sunday with girl friends probably wasn’t THE best nutrition for my training recovery, mentally, it was all I needed!!!

Another funny thing happened this week. I feel ready for Ironman. I know I need to not lose focus in these next 3 weeks of the final build period, but in all honesty I feel like if I started to taper now, I could complete the Ironman in three weeks. The good news is, these next 3 weeks and the taper that will follow will just build that confidence so that on race day I am prepared for whatever is thrown at me. Reading all the craziness that happened at St. George only made me more excited and ready to take on my own Ironman. I’m ready to rock this thing and then sit back and enjoy my summer!

Reader Interactions

Comments

Wow, sounds like a great recovery week. I can’t believe you are in your last build before taper. We still have one more recovery week, then peak then taper. I am not feeling read at all but I hope to get there soon!

ahhh recovery weeks are amazing! i’m right there with ya on annoying and rude cyclists…they seem to be everywhere! i may be a wee bit jealous of your confidence – i don’t feel even close to ready! hopefully this next month of peak training do the trick : /

That is super funny it felt like an easy week, and that it’s considered recovery when your time and numbers are so high!
I’m glad you’re feeling ready; these next few weeks will just boost your confidence.

Loved reading this. I just finished one of my highest volume training weeks (3 weeks of build) and have had this rest week….now come friday while I feel rested, and the workouts were ok, my legs were just super heavy on the run. Seeing your”heavy one the run” helped me to feel a bit better. Rest weeks are nuts…good and strange at the same time. I see this is old old old, so I hope you have a great IM…

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I’m Nicole. I'm a runner, new(ish) mom, Ironman and fitness lover who attempts to live a life of balance as a pizza, beer and coffee lover. I live in a coastal suburb of San Diego and try my best to keep it real here!

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